Mission Zero - Clear Pendency Before GST - CBEC Chairman to Staff
CBEC Chairman Najib Shah in a letter has urged all the Chief and Principal Commissioners to clear pendency as this would have an important bearing on the successful implementation of GST. He says, "too heavy a burden of legacy work regime would hamper us in giving our undivided attention to GST. The solution, therefore, is to immediately chalk out an Action Plan to reduce the pendencies to the maximum possible extent in the balance months of the current financial year. This would give CBEC another advantage: this would reassure stakeholders that trade facilitation remains our top priority and also give them confidence that we are fully capable of handling a transformational reform like GST."
The Chairman has noticed the Hyderabad Zone's initiative of "Mission Zero" with the objective of sharply reducing the pendency of adjudications, refunds, rebates and drawback in a time bound manner. The Chairman wanted other Zones to replicate the Hyderabad model as it would free us to handle GST.
The Chairman further says:
1.The success of Mission Zero requires the complete commitment of all officers and staff engaged in handling the identified items of pending work.
2.Thus, you and your Principal Commissioners/Commissioners must engage with the officers and staff concerned to ensure that all are genuinely convinced of both the importance of Mission Zero and the fact that it is realistically achievable.
3. Mission Zero must be viewed as a collective responsibility which means that local solutions must be found to aid the Commissionerates with higher pendencies.
4. This could involve temporary diversion of staff or even redistribution of pending cases.
5. A key element is to assess the specific areas wherein the process flow for the identified items of work can be expedited. To illustrate, focussed attention on pre-audit would immediately improve the disposal of refund and rebate claims.
6. Adopting "FIFO" (First-In-First-Out) approach at each stage of processing would enhance efficiency and transparency.
7. Finally, it is critical to closely monitor the progress in the identified items of work and, if required, take corrective steps mid-course.
The Chairman concludes, "I am confident that with the suggested focussed approach on reducing pendencies, come 1st April 2017 the CBEC would be in an ideal position to ensure the success of GST in the national interest."
Good Luck Mr. Chairman. Going to GST with a clean slate (well, almost, if not a totally clean one) is a great idea, but can the pendency acquired over years of dedicated hard work and perseverance, be simply wished away in five months? What they should not take into the GST regime is the legacy of arbitrary and unfair tax administration assiduously built up in Central Excise and Service Tax.